Author Olivia Boler

January 29th, 2012

Twiddling my thumbs as Amazon uploads my book

Finally, finally, finally! I uploaded my novel, The Flower Bowl Spell, to Amazon for the Kindle. I really hope it looks good. The preview made me worry that the cover and my author photo are going to somehow get converted to tiny pixellated images of cameras with an exclamation point. Still waiting on Premium Status for Smashwords, but have sold a few copies and had some sample downloads, huzzah!

Apologies also for the lack of maintenance on my Publications page. I know, I need to get some hyperlinks in there, and I will make it so, very soon! I promise. This whole formatting and uploading thing has hold of all my attention, and also the strange loss of many of the WordPress widgets when I went from having a straight blog to my own domain name. But that’s boring. The fact is, I was up late last night (that means 1 a.m.—it’s a wild life I lead), trying to figure out where all my sexy widgets went. So that, and putting off my actual paying work has been the M.O. the last couple of days. In fact, I’m starting to feel almost as anxious about it as I do about all the stuff I have to do for indie publishing. Stress—what a motivator!

Tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, ebook sales, freelance writing, independent publishing, indie publishing, Kindle, publications, Smashwords, widgets
Posted in Publishing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

January 26th, 2012

Welcome to Olivia’s new website

This has been quite a day, an up-and-down day. I uploaded my first eBook this morning on Smashwords. It’s called The Flower Bowl Spell, and you can buy it for $0.99. What a bargain, right?

A little bit about me. When I was about 28 years old, in 2000, I published my first novel with a small press. The book is called Year of the Smoke Girl, and you can find used copies on Amazon. I thought I’d hit it big! I wrote more novels, short stories. Even a novel-in-stories. I quit my day job as a paralegal to write full time as a freelancer. I queried agents and publishing houses. None wanted to represent or publish my new work. In the meantime, my editor passed away and so did his publishing house.

Flash forward to 2011. Ebooks are hot. Self-publishing is no longer considered a one-way ticket to Loserville. Some of my writer friends have made it. Some are still keeping their day jobs. I’m about to turn 40, and it seems time to give myself a very big gift—the gift of publishing one of my novels, one that I think has a chance to be successful.

So today, 25 January 2012, I did just that.

Tags: Amazon, ebooks, independent publishing, indie publishing, Olivia Boler, self-publishing, Smashwords, The Flower Bowl Spell, Year of the Smoke Girl
Posted in Publishing, Writing | No Comments »

January 25th, 2012

A typo already??? Uploaded to Smashwords today!

Drum roll please…So, I just uploaded the novel to Smashwords this morning. I should shout hurray, right? Not so fast.

First, I’m not providing a link to the book (although if you go to Smashwords and search Olivia Boler or The Flower Bowl Spell, you’ll find it) because I immediately found a glaring typo in the dedication—a period next to a comma [.,] that is not in the original document I uploaded. What the what??? There’s another huge typo at the very end in the title, About the Aauthor. Yes, it reads “Aauthor” on my eBook files but again, NOT on my original document. I haven’t gone over the whole thing with a fine-tooth comb, so I shudder to think what I’ll find inside the doc once I do.

[NOTE: I am adding this paragraph after I initially published this post, but don't want to bug you all unnecessarily with a whole new post. I figured it out! Before you submit your Word document to Smashwords, you need to ACCEPT ALL CHANGES in the document! This is very, very important, otherwise, typos you think are fixed (even after you've hit SAVE) might show up in the eBook files Smashwords creates!]

Also, I am waiting to hear back from Smashwords about my “Premium status” in their catalog. that could take a week or two. I’ll keep you all posted.

But typos are the least of my problems right now. I am trying to revamp my website, oliviaboler.com, on my own. Let me just say, I am not a web master. Ha! That’s certainly clear, since my already long neglected, decrepit website has completely disappear. Which is why, again, I am not linking it up here. I have lost hours since last night trying to figure it out on my own, the whole FTP, PHP, blah blah blah. Oh, these are the times independently publishing is so daunting, and I wish some kindly editor had just taken on my book and dealt with all this minutiae herself.

OK. Got to call tech support, get groceries, and upload to Amazon. What are you doing today?

Tags: e-book, formatting, independent publishing, indie publishing, Olivia Boler, self-publish, Smashwords, typos
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | 6 Comments »

January 13th, 2012

That Scary Next Step

So, here’s my progress report on releasing my novel into the world, like a baby bird that has just learned to fly:

I have gone through all of my copy editor’s edits.
I have the cover.
My sister-in-law/photographer sent me a link to the photos she took, and out of 58, I have to narrow it down to 5 (so far, I like more than that).
I need to write my acknowledgments page—and have someone proofread it (and make sure that someone is included).

Then it’s time to upload it! I’ve only read through the Smashwords style guide once, and I’ve barely glanced at Amazon’s, so those are two major tasks that need doing.

This might be a good time to mention that I’m quietly freaking out a little bit here. I’m like that. I’m not one of those people who says, “OK, my ducks are in a row, so let’s take that next step!” and then goes ahead and does it. I hem. I haw. I ask the question, “Are you sure the ducks are in a row? Maybe they need a little adjustment? Perhaps they aren’t lined up precisely so?” And I don’t actually do anything about rectifying this. Not right away. Instead, I run errands, do chores, take on a freelance project, write a blog entry, read a book, or watch TV. (In my defense, some of these things need to get done!) Because the moment for taking that next step doesn’t feel…quite right. To be more frank, it’s scary. When I send my baby bird (or duck) out into the world, it’s all on me whether it flies or falls (that is to say, has a major typo, formats weirdly, etc.). Such is the nature of indie publishing. I know what I need to do. I just. Have. To. Do. It.

Tags: Amazon, baby bird, e-book, freelance project, independent publishing, indie publishing, Kindle, progress report, publishing anxiety, self-publish, Smashwords, writing process
Posted in Writing | 12 Comments »

December 25th, 2011

A Life-changing Book Review of Cold Comfort by Ellis Vidler

Here is my holiday gift to you, dear blogging friends: a book review!

Typically, I write book reviews for pay, but for this one, my reimbursement is the thrill of possibly winning a new Kindle e-reader. Even if I don’t win the Echelon Press contest, I will be victorious nonetheless, because I really enjoyed reading Cold Comfort, which is marketed as a romance and suspense, but really, the romantic elements are sort of incidental, IMHO. The story is a thriller that centers on a perfectly ordinary woman, Claire Spencer, who runs a Christmas tchotchke store (hey, how about a little holiday reading material, right?) and is being targeted for murder. Through a friend, she enlists the help of Ben Riley, a broad-chested ex-Navy man who seems to have endless governmental connections and manly man talents for getting out of dicey situations. He carries a Glock, so that tells you a lot, but he also paints moving seascapes and is haunted by the memories of the clients he hasn’t been able to save.

The story is told from both Claire’s and Riley’s 3rd-person points of view, and the author, Ellis Vidler, does an excellent job of distinguishing their voices. Claire is a no-nonsense lady and Riley is really a dude’s dude. Out of curiosity, I looked up Vidler on Smashwords just to find out if the author was a man or a woman, because I just wasn’t sure, and that is a very good thing (I will let you discover the answer for yourself). The story hits the ground running so to speak, with Claire attacked in the driveway of her Williamsburg, Virginia, home within the first few paragraphs. Who is after her? She’s a nobody. Or is she? The mystery spins along at a fairly speedy clip with twists and turns that keep the reader guessing, and anxiously swiping those digital pages to the very end. Borrowing from Goodreads rating system, I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.

And with that, to all a good night.

Tags: book review, cold comfort, echelon press, ellis vidler, goodreads, Kindle, romance, Smashwords, thriller
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | No Comments »

December 14th, 2011

Can you feel the excitement???

I’m waiting for my sister-in-law Andrea to show up and take my author photo, and thought I’d check in since I’ve got all this pent-up nervous energy. I’m not crazy about gettin’ my picture took, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. And Andrea will make me look decent. Hey, I even got my hair cut yesterday, which came with the usual lecture on using a good conditioner (yes, I only go to the salon about two times a year, which is partly why I haven’t found a permanent stylist—I’m too embarrassed by my split ends).

So, my manuscript is with my copy editor, hurray! I worked on it over a few days, and decided to format it for Smashwords first. I did the best I could, but got hung up on details like using page breaks or not, and whether to put the acknowledgments (still drafting that) at the beginning or end. Really, quite dull. But oh so very important! I’ll worry about KDP and CreateSpace later.

Another option I found out about while lurking on the Kindle Boards (really, I should just go ahead and officially join), is PubIt, which is Barnes & Nobles’ version of KDP. Several authors on the Boards do all four plans (Smashwords, KDP, PubIt, CreateSpace) for each of their books in order to reach as many readers as possible, so I think that’s what I will try. Each one has slightly different formatting requirements, so it will be a lot of busy work, but in the end will save money.

And now the sexy news: I got my book covers! Fena created two beautiful covers, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet because, task master that I am, I’ve requested a few, um, tweaks. She’s really so talented and approachable. When I get that all ironed out, I will debut whichever one is the winner. Or maybe I’ll ask you all for your help.

Also, I’ve been thinking of putting up the prologue to the novel I’m publishing, The Flower Bowl Spell, on this blog. Would that be a fun thing to read?